June Editorial – Zing

Martin closed

The final of the first half of the year gave us two games that are very likely to compete for all sorts of awards at the end of the year: as we assessed in our review, Diablo IV really succeeded, although, of course, this is only the beginning of its long journey as an online game as services and not everything at this stage is perfect, but many of us have a hard time breaking away from the game. Final Fantasy XVI is not without flaws either, but even so, our review was very positive: what the game lacks in terms of (J)RPG heritage, it makes up for very effectively with disarming spectacle and, at times, a genuinely compelling story.

The seasonal portion of announcements and trailers has also been nutritious: among other things, many gamers seem to have been pleasantly surprised by the offer from Xbox and even Ubisoft, whose Star Wars Outlaws enchanted even those who are no longer interested in Assassins or Far Cry sequels. . Personally, I liked the games featured the most: the Persona 3 remake and the Like a Dragon sequel, but of course I’m still curious about Starfield. July will probably be the first month in this game-filled year where not many big games are released. So use it for relaxing outside in the sun, and in the evenings, of course, look to start the first season of Diablo IV and try out the promising Remnant II, for example. In the meantime, we’ll be building up for Gamescom in August.

Jan Urbanchik

June has traditionally been a month of gaming conferences, difficult from a journalist’s point of view, but at the same time, pleasant periods that I always look forward to. I think this year’s presentations were worth it too, and they featured interesting titles like the Czech strategy game Last Train Home or my most anticipated game of the moment, Alan Wake 2.

Of course, despite all the conferences, there were places to play, and I think that I used my free time after school quite well. I finished playing and reviewed the reimagining of Layers of Fear, which looks fantastic thanks to Lumen and other Unreal Engine 5 technologies, so I also added technical analysis to the review. This was followed by another horror in the form of a new Amnesia, which I really liked, despite the outdated technical side, and a remaster of the adventure game Ghost Trick, which is also great and will especially please fans of Ace Attorney.

The end of the month hasn’t been a very good one as I’ve embarked on a story DLC for The Callisto Protocol which fails in almost every aspect and is, I’m afraid, the final nail in the coffin for this brand. I also spent a lot of time playing Final Fantasy XVI, which we talked about in the podcast. So far I’m still having fun, but I still have a lot to do.

What’s even better is that there aren’t many releases in July, so there will be time not only for FF16, but also for various vacations. I’ll probably try the Exoprimal dinosaur event, but I can’t say that I’m really looking forward to any of the games in July. In any case, I’m very curious about the PC version of Ratchet & Clack: Rift Apart, which will be an interesting test of SSDs.

Pavlina Nouzova

In June, something happened to me that I already swore never to happen. I played four games at once. I can’t focus on multiple things at the same time, I get confused easily, and even just changing the PlayStation to Xbox controller causes me problems. But the man changes and the god of video games changes, so the fourth Diablo, the building simulator Park Beyond, the final of the complex puzzle Humanity and the two-year-old shooter Outriders came together in front of me.

A few months ago, I would not have believed it, but Diablo IV became my game for at least the first half of this year. I once missed the trio and could not imagine that the console (in my case, the Xbox) would do well with the new part. And yes. Lilith got me hooked in minutes, and from time to time I catch myself thinking about additional build changes on my way home from work. It’s a shame, but the game flows so nicely, undemandingly, that I never got to the end of the main plot. I run around the world, wash in dungeons and complete quests that would otherwise be unthinkable for me. But the gameplay just hooked me in this case.

I had a similar experience with the Outriders co-op, where I, as a game introvert, go through all the missions alone. While this old part doesn’t really stand out in terms of storyline for me, I really enjoyed playing as a sort of tech mage/sniper wreaking havoc with freeze turrets and “conjured” missiles. Building the rollercoaster at Park Beyond brought a slightly weaker experience. At release, the game had bugs that would sometimes reset progress and sometimes cause groups of angry patrons to get stuck. Compared to older games and especially the legend of RollerCoaster Tycoon, there was no way to customize the work of employees, on the other hand, using “unreal” gravity-defying rides was pleasant entertainment. And I just love amusement parks.

Daniel Jaroki

In my case, June was mostly characterized by big conferences and related news services. So, despite the canceled E3, I definitely wasn’t bored. Although it is difficult to single out just a few representatives from the entire constellation of games presented, I personally was pleasantly surprised by the Ubisoft conference. One feels that the French publisher is breathing slowly again after several weaker years, which were mostly marked by delays. The imaginary quartet of games consisting of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, The Crew Motorfest, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws should represent just the beginning.

The Microsoft conference did not disappoint me either. Until next time, however, at least for the most anticipated games, instead of a flurry of short trailers, I would welcome slightly longer samples directly from gameplay. Of the remaining events and games, I would like to highlight the announcement of the Czech strategy Last Train Home, which in my eyes clearly dominated the not very successful PC Gaming Show conference.

I was able to see its potential even before the presentation at a separate press presentation and the Game Access Developers Conference, which I attended in early June. The forecast for July suggests that after a long time, a less busy month awaits us. The highest place in my rating is F1 Manager 2023 from the developers of the studio Frontier. However, the PC version of the previous PS5-exclusive Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart or the tactical strategy Jagged Alliance 3 also deserve attention.

Philip Svoboda

I spent most of June with no one but the fourth Devil. While the “honest” trio always left me cold, the second part I spent countless hours in my childhood. Despite the fact that I passed the first act only many years later. Diablo IV brought those memories back to life for me – a dark world, interesting characters, nice cinematics, and exciting combat.

In the past week or so, I’ve been accidentally playing the latest version of Need for Speed, subtitled Unbound, which just arrived on Game Pass. I can compare it mainly with Forza Horizon 5, which I still turn on here and there, and objectively say that NfS falls short in terms of driving model or graphics to arcade racing from the Playground to the ankles. But Unbound managed to do something similar to the aforementioned Diablo, but this time I remembered the kilometers traveled in Most Wanted.

For me, summer will be a time of service, not rest. I’m done, and if I’m going to start something new, it’s going to be a vacation (Spring Star Wars?). To be honest, I don’t have games scheduled for July either, but that doesn’t mean they can’t surprise you.

Ondrey Zeman

This month was worth it. In the first part of it, I was literally overwhelmed with news. But that didn’t stop me from playing. Many interesting projects came out, and I was fascinated by them. The bagel was great, for example 20 minutes before dawn or demos of the countless games the world has had access to in recent weeks. However, I fell in love the most Aliens Dark Descentwhich I would not hesitate to call one of the most distinctive games from this universe that can be found on the market.

July will be a month of rest, at least in my eyes. I’d like to focus on older projects during this, after which I’m definitely going to take a closer look at some of the parts that are coming out at this time. I’m in love with the new part of the series Pikminwhat, like Jagged Alliance 3 grabs my attention the most. And then it will reappear Remainder 2whose theme is also something I would find hard to resist.